I see lots of posts and blogs and hear from other moms about how overwhelming homeschooling is. I have had moments, sure, but my over all experience has been so good. I even posted an update recently about how smooth things are going and wondering what am I doing wrong? It's too easy! But the truth has caught up to me at last. As it turns out, I am very much an overwhelmed homeschool mom, just not about the homeschool part.
Let me 'splain. I genuinely enjoy planning, preping, teaching, and even grading. Once I dug into planning and figured out how it was going to work (thank you - Amongst Lovely Things spiral notebooks!) I just loved it. I know it will get harder and more frustrating, but whatever. Right now it's my happy place. What overwhelms me - what has always overwhelmed me - is keeping up with the rest of the house. Dishes...laundry...clutter... shopping...cooking...again...again! ARGH! While I have made huge strides in my housekeeping skills over the last ten years, it is very much a struggle for me. I dust and then I'm done for the month. Why do I have to keep dusting?! I cooked an awesome meal, why are you hungry again? I digress.
Now that I have this other task, one that is so important and that I prefer to spend my time and attention on (school), keeping house is that much more difficult. If we could live peacefully amidst the chaos of an unkempt home (as some people can), I wouldn't worry about it. My goal here is not to achieve perfection or show off to feel better about myself. I just want our home to be a place of rest for us and when things are chaotic, we start to feel the tension.
Before you go away thinking we live in dirt and squalor, we don't! Things get clean, we just don't have a good rhythm of work and rest. A few weeks ago our upstairs room was re-insulated resulting in a bit of an overhaul in the rest of the house. We did some reorganizing and shuffling of each room's purpose. All the big stuff now has a home and we love the flow of things, but there are still some little projects and chores piled up in corners around the house. Additionally we have entered into the fall and holiday busyness phase of life which means we are in a constant cycle of work-rehearsal-chores/projects at home-school-etc-etc-etc with no time to relax and enjoy one another. Hence the overwhelmed.
The situation is not without hope. I have lots of tools and resources accumulated over the years that will help me get a bead on the housework/homeschool routine and even more importantly, the Sabbath - a gift from a good and gracious God who knows our need for a healthy rest cycle. I just have to be willing to pay attention and obey.
Let me 'splain. I genuinely enjoy planning, preping, teaching, and even grading. Once I dug into planning and figured out how it was going to work (thank you - Amongst Lovely Things spiral notebooks!) I just loved it. I know it will get harder and more frustrating, but whatever. Right now it's my happy place. What overwhelms me - what has always overwhelmed me - is keeping up with the rest of the house. Dishes...laundry...clutter... shopping...cooking...again...again! ARGH! While I have made huge strides in my housekeeping skills over the last ten years, it is very much a struggle for me. I dust and then I'm done for the month. Why do I have to keep dusting?! I cooked an awesome meal, why are you hungry again? I digress.
Now that I have this other task, one that is so important and that I prefer to spend my time and attention on (school), keeping house is that much more difficult. If we could live peacefully amidst the chaos of an unkempt home (as some people can), I wouldn't worry about it. My goal here is not to achieve perfection or show off to feel better about myself. I just want our home to be a place of rest for us and when things are chaotic, we start to feel the tension.
Before you go away thinking we live in dirt and squalor, we don't! Things get clean, we just don't have a good rhythm of work and rest. A few weeks ago our upstairs room was re-insulated resulting in a bit of an overhaul in the rest of the house. We did some reorganizing and shuffling of each room's purpose. All the big stuff now has a home and we love the flow of things, but there are still some little projects and chores piled up in corners around the house. Additionally we have entered into the fall and holiday busyness phase of life which means we are in a constant cycle of work-rehearsal-chores/projects at home-school-etc-etc-etc with no time to relax and enjoy one another. Hence the overwhelmed.
The situation is not without hope. I have lots of tools and resources accumulated over the years that will help me get a bead on the housework/homeschool routine and even more importantly, the Sabbath - a gift from a good and gracious God who knows our need for a healthy rest cycle. I just have to be willing to pay attention and obey.
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